im in southern california with time warner....and i just purchased a TiVo HD TCD652160...however, they are saying that this specific model will not work with Motorola M cards that they have?? however, they cant seem to get any S cards to work?? any idea what to do?? they came out and tried the M cards and their support said there is a specific issue with this model and their m cards?

In Waukesha, WI I just got done with a cable card install. The tech was only able to get a single stream card in slot 1 working. He had 2 other cards but couldn't get either to work in slot 2. Disappointing but they're sending another tech out friday so hopefully they can finish their job this time.

I've been humming along with my TivoHD and TWC M-Card in Cincinnati for a few weeks and I've noticed some trouble cropping up.

Specifically, today when I turned on my TV, there was a blue Tivo message at the bottom of a black screen that said, "Finding Channel info" or something like that. When flipping around I noticed some channels were fine and some were just black with no audio.

Restarting the Tivo fixed it (after restarting I got the 'Acquiring Channel Information' swirly ball). Everything seems fine now, but this is the second time it's happened in two weeks - anyone have an idea why it's happening?

I was at one of the Cincinnati TWC offices today discussing options (like cable card) and I learned that a big software update went out last night. They updated SA8300HDC boxes to Navigator 2.4.9_3 last night. Perhaps this is related and something on the head-end changed as part of the upgrade.

Yesterday I had a very smooth install of M-Cards on two TivoHD boxes. No issues at all. I will add that I had the Tivo boxes hooked up for about a week prior, so they had all the current updates. Installer also commented that he had updated the cards he brought prior to the visit.

With 2 TivoHD's (switching from DirecTv to cable), a digital telephone install, and Roadrunner... it only took about 90 minutes. Maybe even less. We had a very good installer. (Pataskala area).

I was at one of the Cincinnati TWC offices today discussing options (like cable card) and I learned that a big software update went out last night. They updated SA8300HDC boxes to Navigator 2.4.9_3 last night. Perhaps this is related and something on the head-end changed as part of the upgrade.

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I started having problems after the same upgrade in Dayton. I had to call Time Warner to come out to hopefully fix it.

Came home today, and was having trouble with pixellation. MSNBC. Called Time Warner, and TIVO. Tivo Suggestion having TW give cards a refresh. Did that. Checked the cables, etc. Now MSNBC seems ok, but half of the HD channels in the 402 to 425 seem to have pixellation, and have a poor signal of around 65 to 75.

Called today to set up an appointment with TW here only to end up in an argument with the phone rep, who insisted that cablecards woudn't work in Tivos ("Cablecards are only for our DVR's. Tivos won't work on our network"). After going around with him for a while, I finally did get him to set up an appointment for next Monday (God only knows what he put on the work order). I just hope the tech they send out isn't as stupid as this guy was.

I wish I had recorded the call. Some of the stuff this guy said was unbelievable ("Why would we support someone else's DVR?" to which I resonded "Uh, because the FCC says so?")

I really miss the old Tivo interface (I used to have a series 2) and I hope I can finaly get it back again. The TW DVR sucks in comparison.

Called today to set up an appointment with TW here only to end up in an argument with the phone rep, who insisted that cablecards woudn't work in Tivos ("Cablecards are only for our DVR's. Tivos won't work on our network").

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Wow. This sort of thing amazes me (and I've had similar experiences, though not quite that outrageous).

I really wonder sometimes what the problem is. I've had universally positive experiences dealing with TWC's technical staff; their engineers and technicians seem to be smart people who know what they're doing. Obviously, phone reps can't be expected to have the same depth of expertise, but why can't they at least refrain from saying things that are actually wrong?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I don't believe that TWC is telling its reps intentionally to lie. I just think they must have some serious deficiencies in their training program.

My cable card install in Cumberland County/Portland, Maine went flawlessly a couple weeks ago. Installer brought 2 M-Cards, First one worked fine. After returning from a few days away from home, I did need to have the card 'hit' and got some channels back that had gone away (I had returned the SA8300 we had on the way out of town, so maybe it was a billing/data entry thing)

The interesting part starts today - I had to get a replacement HD from TiVo, and after receiving it (a few days late due to a Train Derailment - UPS) I called TW to have the card re-paired to the new box. The CSR said I would need to have (another) service call to my house - I explained that all I needed them to do was change the Host ID on their computer and re-hit the card. She checked with someone, came back and said "No, you need a service call, there's something wrong with your equipment" - After losing it a little, I asked to speak with a supervisor, who said they already did what I asked & it didn't work... I told him that I never gave them the "Host ID" that needed to be changed, so they couldn't have done what I was asking for.... Long story short, I was connected to the local "Level 3" support, and spoke with Bob, who not only listened to me, but figured out where he needed to make the change (changing 8 digits on a setup screen) and all was well within minutes of reaching him.

The moral of the story for me is to ask for Level 3 support asap when needing to re-pair a cable card.

Sorry to ramble, but the other thing was that the unencrypted locals worked fine even before the re-pairing (re-mapped to the appropriate channel numbers), so if I go to basic cable for locals only, as long as I can keep the card I have, I shouldn't need to deal with customer service as long as the card doesn't die.

Last night, at about 1:10 am, my Tivo HD suddenly started a firmware upgrade on the SA M-card. It took about 30 to 45 minutes, and when it was done I had a black background on everything and couldn't play any recorded video.

I restarted the Tivo and video was displaying again, although it took a few minutes before it re-acquired channels.

(FYI, I've had this box and the one cablecard since 2/23. This is the first firmware upgrade that I am aware of since the one during installation.)

I got the Woot! special (TiVoHD) and asked for an M-card when I called for the appointment. (Here is San Diego, they won't allow you to self-install.) She didn't know what I was talking about...said they only support single direction. I asked her to note it for the installer--one multi-stream card.

Installer showed up according to schedule. Said he had only done 1 or 2 TiVo boxes previously. Had an M-card with him. Popped it in, let me "drive" the TiVo setup. Called it in... and it all worked first time. He left in under 10 minutes. Cool!

After he left, I went to install the WD 1TB that I got from Buy.com... but the drive was DOA. That's for another post...

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Funny, I just picked up a TivoHD today and called TWC in San Diego and the chick told me the same thing, that they only had S-cards. I did the same thing and asked her to note that I wanted an M-card, I also asked to have it noted I want a Technician who was familiar with doing CC's in Tivos. We'll see on Friday. Also, I'm not sure about other TWC areas, but I just noticed on the San Diego site that they just added Discovery HD and History HD! I'm so freaking happy about that. I was very very close to switching to U-verse since they have those channels in HD and those are basically the only channels I watch. Now I'll be able to record stuff with my shiny new THD in HD!!

I just noticed on the San Diego site that they just added Discovery HD and History HD! I'm so freaking happy about that. I was very very close to switching to U-verse since they have those channels in HD and those are basically the only channels I watch. Now I'll be able to record stuff with my shiny new THD in HD!!

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I hope I'm not bursting your bubble, but... I haven't been able to get DiscoveryHD and History HD. They have a disclaimer that not all channels are available with cable cards only. I assumed it was because of switched video. I have an installer coming out for the 2nd box and figured I'd ask him whether or not I should be getting those channels.

I hope I'm not bursting your bubble, but... I haven't been able to get DiscoveryHD and History HD. They have a disclaimer that not all channels are available with cable cards only. I assumed it was because of switched video. I have an installer coming out for the 2nd box and figured I'd ask him whether or not I should be getting those channels.

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See, and that's complete bull**** if you ask me....ALL of their cable boxes and DVRs have cableCARDS in them now, so there's no reason why the Tivo shouldn't work with SDV channels. So much for their "advanced fiber network" Good thing I didn't get the THD based on the fact they added those channels. I found out after I bought it when I went to the TWC SD site to get the number to call for the CC installation.

I'll just have to keep the HD-DVR, I guess...hope I can keep that and have the cableCARD as well

See, and that's complete bull**** if you ask me....ALL of their cable boxes and DVRs have cableCARDS in them now, so there's no reason why the Tivo shouldn't work with SDV channels.

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It's not that simple, which is one reason why I think it's important to maintain the distinction between "CableCARDs" and "CableCARD hosts."

CableCARDs themselves have no problem with SDV. But the current spec for third-party CableCARD host devices (like TiVos) does not encompass two-way communication. That means that cable companies can build proprietary STBs with CableCARDs that are capable of accessing bidirectional services like SDV, but third-party manufacturers like TiVo cannot.

Even if the spec allowed it, there's no practical way TiVo could do it, because of the absence of a standard. There are multiple different proprietary systems in use by different cable companies, so a TiVo that worked with one cable system would not work with another. The cable company doesn't have that problem, because they only have to supply STBs for their own system.

I woke up this morning to find that all my cable channels, except for what comes through when you have basic cable, were gone. This happened once before about six months ago, and I had to get TiVo on the phone with Time Warner to get them to rehit the cards. Argh!

I woke up this morning to find that all my cable channels, except for what comes through when you have basic cable, were gone. This happened once before about six months ago, and I had to get TiVo on the phone with Time Warner to get them to rehit the cards. Argh!

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When that happened to me, I was told by TWC to just unplug and reboot. I rebooted without unplugging, and the problem was fixed instantly (if you call 5 minutes to reboot "instantly!").

Aloha,
I just got my TiVo HD yesterday and when I called the Oahu Hawaii TWC office today they told me they do not offer HD content on their CableCards here. Does anyone have any experience with this or suggest people I should contact?
thanks!